Workshop Title:Using Inspiration to Organize a Research Project
Subject: Language Arts and Social Studies
Audience: Teachers teaching students in grades 2-5
Prerequisite Knowledge
Knowledge of Inspiration, Edline, Write Out Loud, Natural Reader and WordQ.
Content
Inspiration is a program that helps students organize their ideas as part of the writing project. Teachers think of Inspiration as a substitute to a paper graphic organizer. It can be that, but it can also do more than that. As a teacher if you look at Inspiration as a way to present content to your students you are more likely to integrate it in your classroom instruction. Inspiration also provides choices for students to access the curriculum in many ways and to present what they know in a myriad of ways. Inspiration can be especially useful for students with special needs and for ESOL students. Inspiration allows teachers to effectively incorporate e-learning principles like the modality, contiguity, redundancy and multimedia principles in learning effectively.
Objectives for this lesson
Participants of this class will use Inspiration to teach students how to organize a research project in a language arts and a social studies class.
Participants will use the Promethean board to demonstrate to students how to use Inspiration.
Participants will present materials to students using an Inspiration web with hyperlinks to safe websites that they would like students to use to research the topic.
Participants will apply the modality principle of presenting words as audio narration rather than text on the web for special needs and ESOL students so that they can use the Inspiration web with the narration to conduct research.
How will you teach the lesson?
I would teach this lesson in a computer lab. Each participant would have access to their own computer. After my demonstration I would allow the participants to create a lesson plan.
I would teach this lesson using a demonstration of an Inspiration web I have created with hyperlinks, audio and narration related to a research topic in language arts or social studies.
I would demonstrate this to the participants using a promethean board.
I would provide participants with handouts created with screen captures and red arrows high lighting features of the program.
I would provide them with links to my support wiki in the handout to access later in their classroom as they teach students and have queries.
I would also provide them with relevant useful tips for the program.
I would also provide the participants with creative ways to use the Inspiration web in their classrooms. For example I would say to the participants,
“Think about the content you want to present
Are you starting a new topic of instruction?
Are you building on information previously learned?
Can the information you are teaching be grouped or categorized?”
This would get them to probe deeper into their teaching techniques, then I would tell them
“Most of what we teach students is more than a list of facts. Concepts are related to each other. When kids understand how the information you are giving them is related to what they already know, then they are more likely to understand and learn.”
Next I would say to the participants, “plan your instruction using Inspiration”
“Before you start planning your lesson, open Inspiration to help you organize what you want to teach. There is no better way to learn and understand the features of a software program than by using it yourself.
Brainstorm all the things you want to do in your new unit – activities you want to use, concepts you want to explain, skills you want kids to demonstrate, and vocabulary the students will need to understand
Use the “Rapid Fire” function in inspiration
Then drag the ideas you created into logical group
Color code the groups – then drag the concepts into an order you would like to teach them”
Then I would say to the participants “Present a lesson to students using Inspiration” At this point I would show them a sample of a web I have created on Inspiration with ideas to use Inspiration in the classroom.
Next I would tell them to “Create a graphic that provides an overview of the concepts of a unit and how they relate to each other as an introductory lesson to a new unit
Do the same as above with a single concept for one lesson
Show a timeline of events with embedded pictures or video
Do a KWL with the class – type in the students’ ideas using the "Rapid Fire" function then organize them together with the class”
Finally I would tell the participants to incorporate multimedia using Inspiration and provide them with a useful tip when using Inspiration.
“Inspiration allows you to add sound, hyperlinks and video files to the Inspiration web you are creating. It also allows you to record your own voice and add to a symbol in the web. You have to first save the sound, hyperlinks and video files you want to add to the web to your computer. Then you can insert it in Inspiration using the appropriate icons in the menu bar. It is important to note that Inspiration only plays video files that end in avi, mpg, mpeg and mp4 and it only plays sound files saved as a wav or an mp3 file. Hyperlinks can be inserted in the same way as sound and video files and help to provide additional support and background knowledge to the student.”
Useful Tip:
“If you don’t have Inspiration on a computer, you can download MyWebspiration it has a free trial period for classrooms. Webspiration will allow you to open a file created on Inspiration version 8.0 or later on a computer even if it doesn’t have Inspiration installed on it. There is a video on this website that demonstrates the features of Webspiration and contrasts it with the Webspiration Pro version which can also be downloaded for free for a trail period.”
Additional material
Provide handouts with screen captures
Provide links to videos created using ScreencastOMatic to demonstrate sample lesson plans using Inspiration.
Show video clips I have recorded of teachers teaching a lesson using Inspiration
Evaluation/Test yourself
At the end of the class, participants will be asked to complete a “test yourself activity” This will be a simple activity. The aim of the activity would be for participants to demonstrate their understanding of what was taught in class. For example in the workshop “Using Inspiration to Organize Research Project” participants will be asked to
Create a web using Inspiration for your students to explain the various religions that existed during the Greek Civilization. On the web, include two hyperlinks to websites students can access to gather information for their project. On one symbol in the web insert a sound file on another insert a relevant video file and on the third insert your voice recording. Include a timeline, due dates section and a rubric for the assignment on the web. Also have links to programs like WordQ, WriteOut Loud and Natural Reader on it for special needs students that need access to these programs to complete their assignments. Color code groups of ideas that belong together.
OR
Create a map labeling activity for students in a social studies class. Students that have trouble using a paper and pencil to label maps can use Inspiration. Upload maps you want students to label to Inspiration. Use the resources below to locate maps or outlines of maps for students to label. Inspiration can read text out loud (using the listen tool) to students. Students can then type in text over top of the image, click/drag pre-made text boxes to the correct location on top of the image, or draw lines from labels.
Resources to locate images related to the curriculum:
Complete these activities and then complete an evaluation survey on the evaluation page of this wiki. You can navigate to that page from the table of contents or the navigation menu on the right.
Table of Contents
Table of Content
Day 1
Name of Presenter: Beena RaichuraWorkshop Title:Using Inspiration to Organize a Research Project
Subject: Language Arts and Social Studies
Audience: Teachers teaching students in grades 2-5
Prerequisite Knowledge
Knowledge of Inspiration, Edline, Write Out Loud, Natural Reader and WordQ.Content
Inspiration is a program that helps students organize their ideas as part of the writing project. Teachers think of Inspiration as a substitute to a paper graphic organizer. It can be that, but it can also do more than that. As a teacher if you look at Inspiration as a way to present content to your students you are more likely to integrate it in your classroom instruction. Inspiration also provides choices for students to access the curriculum in many ways and to present what they know in a myriad of ways. Inspiration can be especially useful for students with special needs and for ESOL students. Inspiration allows teachers to effectively incorporate e-learning principles like the modality, contiguity, redundancy and multimedia principles in learning effectively.
Objectives for this lesson
How will you teach the lesson?
I would teach this lesson in a computer lab. Each participant would have access to their own computer. After my demonstration I would allow the participants to create a lesson plan.
“Think about the content you want to present
This would get them to probe deeper into their teaching techniques, then I would tell them
“Most of what we teach students is more than a list of facts. Concepts are related to each other. When kids understand how the information you are giving them is related to what they already know, then they are more likely to understand and learn.”
Next I would say to the participants, “plan your instruction using Inspiration”
“Before you start planning your lesson, open Inspiration to help you organize what you want to teach. There is no better way to learn and understand the features of a software program than by using it yourself.
Brainstorm all the things you want to do in your new unit – activities you want to use, concepts you want to explain, skills you want kids to demonstrate, and vocabulary the students will need to understand
Then I would say to the participants “Present a lesson to students using Inspiration” At this point I would show them a sample of a web I have created on Inspiration with ideas to use Inspiration in the classroom.
Next I would tell them to “Create a graphic that provides an overview of the concepts of a unit and how they relate to each other as an introductory lesson to a new unit
Do the same as above with a single concept for one lesson
Show a timeline of events with embedded pictures or video
Do a KWL with the class – type in the students’ ideas using the "Rapid Fire" function then organize them together with the class”
Finally I would tell the participants to incorporate multimedia using Inspiration and provide them with a useful tip when using Inspiration.
“Inspiration allows you to add sound, hyperlinks and video files to the Inspiration web you are creating. It also allows you to record your own voice and add to a symbol in the web. You have to first save the sound, hyperlinks and video files you want to add to the web to your computer. Then you can insert it in Inspiration using the appropriate icons in the menu bar. It is important to note that Inspiration only plays video files that end in avi, mpg, mpeg and mp4 and it only plays sound files saved as a wav or an mp3 file. Hyperlinks can be inserted in the same way as sound and video files and help to provide additional support and background knowledge to the student.”
Useful Tip:
“If you don’t have Inspiration on a computer, you can download MyWebspiration it has a free trial period for classrooms. Webspiration will allow you to open a file created on Inspiration version 8.0 or later on a computer even if it doesn’t have Inspiration installed on it. There is a video on this website that demonstrates the features of Webspiration and contrasts it with the Webspiration Pro version which can also be downloaded for free for a trail period.”
Additional material
Provide handouts with screen captures
Provide links to videos created using ScreencastOMatic to demonstrate sample lesson plans using Inspiration.
Show video clips I have recorded of teachers teaching a lesson using Inspiration
Evaluation/Test yourself
At the end of the class, participants will be asked to complete a “test yourself activity” This will be a simple activity. The aim of the activity would be for participants to demonstrate their understanding of what was taught in class. For example in the workshop “Using Inspiration to Organize Research Project” participants will be asked to
Create a web using Inspiration for your students to explain the various religions that existed during the Greek Civilization. On the web, include two hyperlinks to websites students can access to gather information for their project. On one symbol in the web insert a sound file on another insert a relevant video file and on the third insert your voice recording. Include a timeline, due dates section and a rubric for the assignment on the web. Also have links to programs like WordQ, WriteOut Loud and Natural Reader on it for special needs students that need access to these programs to complete their assignments. Color code groups of ideas that belong together.
OR
Create a map labeling activity for students in a social studies class. Students that have trouble using a paper and pencil to label maps can use Inspiration. Upload maps you want students to label to Inspiration. Use the resources below to locate maps or outlines of maps for students to label. Inspiration can read text out loud (using the listen tool) to students. Students can then type in text over top of the image, click/drag pre-made text boxes to the correct location on top of the image, or draw lines from labels.
Resources to locate images related to the curriculum:
National Geographic Xpeditions Atlas
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/outline-map/?ar_a=1
The map Section of HoughtonMifflin Education Place
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/
Complete these activities and then complete an evaluation survey on the evaluation page of this wiki. You can navigate to that page from the table of contents or the navigation menu on the right.
Table of Contents